Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have foiled attempts by two drug kingpins to smuggle heroin into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, and the Port Harcourt International Airport.
The traffickers were said to have swallowed the illicit substances in a desperate bid to evade detection, but were intercepted by NDLEA operatives and placed under excretion observation, leading to the recovery of a combined total of 125 wraps of heroin.
NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.
He said one of the arrested traffickers, Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus was apprehended at the Port Harcourt airport on Sunday, 2nd February 2025.
The 30-year-old suspect is accused of also operating under the alias Kargbo Mohamed Foday using a Sierra Leonean passport.
NDLEA officers caught him during the inward clearance of a Qatar Airways flight from Doha via Abuja, saying a body scan confirmed he had ingested illicit drugs, leading to a tense waiting game as he was placed under observation, Babafemi stated.
“In five separate excretions, he expelled 62 wraps of heroin weighing 1.348 kilogrammes,” he said.
“Sylvanus, a seasoned trafficker who alternates between his Nigerian and Sierra Leonean identities, reportedly shuttles between Thailand, Pakistan, Iran, and West Africa, ferrying drugs across international borders. He confessed to abandoning his clothing and shoe business in 2017 to go full-time into drug trafficking,” he explained.
The NDLEA spokesman identified the second kingpin as James Herbert Chinoso, 48, saying he was arrested on Saturday, 1st February, at the Lagos airport upon his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“NDLEA officials, acting on intelligence, subjected him to a body scan that exposed his desperate attempt to conceal heroin internally. Under strict surveillance, Chinoso excreted 63 wraps of heroin, weighing 909 grams. He admitted that financial hardship following the collapse of his phone accessories business in Liberia drove him into the illicit trade,” he added.
